Roderick
Roderick squeezed the hilt of his sword as if it was the only thing keeping him grounded. Panic hit him like a rushing flood, like a storm's winds. Having something to hold helped.
Mack, he remembered, still believed they were getting out of this. And if the old shadow, who shrugged off things that left Roderick weak at the knees, felt they had good odds...
A Gloamtaken rushed ahead of the others, and Roderick brought that one down with a weak r thrust into the ribs, and a quick twist of the wrist to widen the wound. The creature fell while his sword was still inside, and he barely managed to pull it out before it was trapped beneath. Roderick cursed himself over the mistake, but the next creature made a worse decision of going after Mackaroy, who struck it down with a shallow cut to the ribs that looked like barely more than shifting into a different guard stance.
Roderick used mostly the same trick, but remembered to pull the sword out earlier. He then cut a third with a low slash, managing to sneak by the creature's flailing arm.
Three would be how far he'd have managed on his own. As the creature fell, another lunged at him from the side, both hands clinging to his sword arm, and it pulled him hard enough to drop him to one knee. But even as one hand moved to turn his head back, or gouge his eyes, a black blur passed behind it, and the creature toppled over beside him.
Mack pulled him to his feet. "Hope that scare was enough, kid."
Roderick frowned,
"Happens to all of us, after we get used to danger. Arrogance makes us complacent, and we forget we'e one stupid mistake away from death. Keep your eyes open." Mack patted him on the back, harder than the old shadow needed to, and turned back to the killing.
So Roderick sheathed his sword, and shifted back to his Salamander. Still advancing, he fired with careful precision, going back what he knew, and being as careful as he could to keep his fire away from Mack.
Fire. Open the breach. Toss out the spent shell. Damn things stung as they came out, he wondered how the captain did it so quickly. Pop in another one. Check the fit. Volenski had cuffed him upside the head when she saw him skip that part. Close the breach. Pick your target.
Roderick chanced a glance backwards. The Mob was still advancing, collapsing in on itself as It trampled over its own creatures to try and reach the pair of soldiers fighting. Even as the mob surged, Valen was light on his feet and quick with his sword, slowing the mob by putting the dead into its path. And the captain was firing so quickly his spent casings didn't hit the ground before the next shot went off.
"A dozen more," Mackaroy said. Roderick hadn't noticed, and suspected he wasn't responsible for all that many of the creatures they had killed. "That's all we have left here."
They didn't last long. Mackaroy brought down most of them in that quick, almost mechanically efficient manner of his in the time Roderick took to get four shots off. As soon as the last one fell, Mack turned around and ran back to Mildred, stopping beside her and crouching down.
"Ash bitten thing won't light," Mildred growled as Roderick approached. "No matter what I do, the fuse won't take a light."
"You tried taking a Salamander to it?"
"Three times. Lights for half a second, then fizzles out like I stuffed the end into a bucket of water."
"Ash in the abyss," Mackaroy whispered.
"It's like I'm trying to light a fire in the bottom of the river. Everything I've tried should have worked. Burning hell, I should have blown us up already," Mildred cursed.
"Keep trying," Mackaroy ordered, as he pushed himself to his feet. Three knives appeared in his left hand, resting between his fingers. "Captain, the fuse is a no-go!"
Captain Dremora didn't turn back. Neither did Valen, as both men were steadily driven backwards. The Gloamtaken paid for every step, but both of them were barely managing to keep facing the creatures as they advanced.
"Mack, We have to do something," Roderick protested. "We can't hold that mob."
"This is the only choke point left to hold them," Mackaroy replied. He pulled off his ammo pouch, and gave Roderick an odd, rather menacing expression. It took Roderick a moment to realize it was supposed to be a smile. "How's you aim?"
"Okay, I guess. Why?"
"Shoot for this," Mack said, and he lobbed the ammo pouch in a high arc, towards the Gloamtaken.
Roderick cursed, set his sights, and tried his best to track the pouch's arc as it sailed through the air. He let out a slow breath, and was about to squeeze the trigger.
But a shot lanced through the air from up ahead, and the pouch exploded just over the heads of the Gloamtaken. The street vanished behind a flash of bright blue fire, and for a moment Roderick could only see the outline of Captain Dremora and Sergeant Redrave retreating.
"Sir," Mack said. He sheathed his sword as he spoke, and took his Salamander off his shoulder. He looked over at where Mildred was still swearing angrily at the fuses, and gestured towards her with his weapon."We can't let that mob get past here. There's no where else to hold them."
Roderick suspected there was another conversation being spoken, but in a language he didn't speak. "Agreed," Captain Dremora said, though the affirmation was accompanied by a shake of his head. "These buildings have to come down, one way or another."
"Sir. There are some things the City needs more than others," Mack said. "Some sacrifices are a bad trade.
"There are," Dremora said, and he tapped Mackaroy on the chest. "What we need most are red coats, and people who know how to work with them. This is my call, soldier."
Mackaroy flinched, and if Roderick didn't know better, he might have thought there were tears in the scarred shadow's eyes. "Aye, sir."
Louder, the captain asked, "Mildred, have any leftover charges? Ones you don't need to drop those buildings?"
"Aye, sir."
"Valen, Mildred, use those charges and all the ammo pouches you have to make some space. I'll look at those fuses," Captain Dremora ordered.
Valen's free hand had already snatched his own ammo pouch up, and he sent it skidding into the mob. This time, Roderick tracked it, and fired just before it disappeared beneath the mob. The explosion ripped pieces of the street and threw it into the air, and hurled Gloamtaken aside like trampling on fine dust.
Valen ran directly into the reeling mass of Gloamtaken. Mildred was only a few steps behind, lobbing a demolition charge into the mob and detonating it with a well-placed shot.
Mackaroy was next into the fray, firing his last Salamander shot into the mob before he switched to sword and knives. Roderick untied his own pouch, and initiated Mildred's tactic of sliding it low into the mob, and letting them pass over it a little before he detonated it.
Three more explosions, as Mildred spent the last of her charges. Three more explosions for all the moments that mob didn't advance. Even Valen's skill, even how quickly he and Mack and MIldred could drop them, wasn't enough to even slow the mob down as it reached and charged and tried to envelop them.
One of them grabbed Roderick by the leg and pulled, throwing him off balance and dropping him to the ground. He kicked and rolled, and tried to get back on his feet, but more hands started grabbing his coat, his arms, and pulled him back down.
Steel reflected the spirelight, and Valen's sword appeared over Roderick, cutting the creatures down. An arm wrapped around his shoulder, and dragged him back.
"Get up, get up," Mildred hissed as she let go of his shoulder and stabbed at another creature.
Roderick pushed himself to his feet just as a Gloamtaken fell in front of him, Mackaroy was nearby, killing as he ran.
They couldn't' keep this up. There was no holding, not against this. Roderick gritted his teeth, and prepared to charge into them with his sword. If he got two more, it would make up for the one he would become.
"Got the fuse!" Captain Dremora bellowed. The shout felt like something warm in winter, something cool in the heat of a blast furnace. It felt like hope. "Run for it!"
Roderick ran. A dozen steps, and he passed where Captain Dremora was waving towards them, encouraging them on. He threw himself into his escape, heaving air and throwing his legs forwards as fast as he could.
An explosion sounded behind him. He didn't look back, but he could see the blue flash against the glass on the windows ahead. Another sounded a second later.
He could see Mildred out of the corner of his eye. But he didn't dare turn his head, frightened to lose his footing or miss some piece of rubble he might trip on. He only slowed, a little, as the sudden rush began to recede, and he looked around to see Valen and Mack were close behind.
But the captain wasn't there.